Hello mcdonanmw,
These are two distinct and (mostly) unrelated issues.
The problem with weighted matchmaking for those in territories with a low MW3 player base is that the game appears to not be expanding the geography searched correctly in increments through successive searches on the Xbox 360 resulting in matchmaking taking a long time or people struggling to join any matches for some of the less common game modes.
The matchmaking was designed using a regionally weighted sesarch for many reasons: to ensure people tended to group with those nearby to optimize averge ping to the host; increase the likelihood that people played with those players who speak their language amongst others.
We have an issue, however, in the case of regions with few players since it appears too much weight is continually applied to locale throughout the search for active sessions. We are actively trying to fix this problem and are in contact with our counterparts at Microsoft (we use Live for matchmaking on Xbox, on other platforms a proprietary solution) to determine where in the process the issue exists and fix it. We are acutely aware how frustrating this must be for those affected and thank everyone suffering from this for their patience.
The reason I stated these are mostly unrelated fixes is because care needs to be taken as we solve this issue to ensure someone from across the globe is not being matched with a lobby hosted in Los Angeles, for example, because this can influence lag for all parties.
Now moving to lag optimization in general and matchmaking for those in parties. We are constantly working to improve lag for all. As fourzerotwo has announced we have a TU in submission that focusses on host network performance that we believe will improve the situation for all and hopefully dramtically diminish occurences where those with good connections feel the need to apply latency in order to avoid pulling host and compete on a level playing field!
Finlly, parties complicate the search process. When you party up, the bigger the size of the party the greater the chance that not all members of the party can establish a connection to the host of available games becomes. In MW3 we made a number of improvements to the party logic. One being to ensure that you would join as a group to avoid situations where one or two members of the party were left behind in the lobby. When the search process continues past the 150ms mark, behind the scenes we are still favouring sessions with the lowest ping as we continue searching even though this is not displayed.
G IH A IN ID II
